The invention relates to an assembly of a number of wheelchairs. Such an assembly is known from practice and is supplies by the firm of Revab BV, Silvolde, the Netherlands.
The known assembly is used, for instance, at airports, in hospitals and nursing homes, department stores and like establishments visited by varying populations. The wheelchairs are intended for public or at least semipublic use. The use of such an assembly will now be explained with reference to an airport.
At any moment of the day, a number of wheelchairs are arranged together at a central point, for instance at an entrance of an airport. A passenger arriving at the airport sits down in one of the wheelchairs, with or without assistance from, for instance, a fellow traveler or an airport employee. Then the user of the wheelchair proceeds to an airplane, where the wheelchair is left behind when the user takes his seat in the airplane. The wheelchair may be used again by another passenger for another displacement or is wheeled back empty to the above-mentioned or similar central point in due course.
The known assembly of wheelchairs has as a disadvantage that the wheelchairs occupy a great deal of space in unused condition. The wheelchairs are placed together, for instance in a row side by side. It will be clear that this is undesirable, since space at an airport but also in, for instance, hospitals, residences for disabled or older people and the like, is limited. Moreover, the wheelchairs arranged together make a disorderly, chaotic and hence unattractive impression and can be a hindrance and even dangerous to other passers-by, such as visitors and employees. A further disadvantage is that the wheelchairs, when they are not, or no longer, in use and have been left at a different point than the above-mentioned central arrangement point, they have to be returned to that central arrangement point one by one, which is time-consuming and strenuous, and hence expensive and unpleasant.
It has previously been proposed to make wheelchairs collapsible, so that in the condition where they are not used they take up little or at least less space than in a service position. This is undesirable for wheelchairs for public or at least semipublic use, since the wheelchairs are not ready for use in such a storage position. An intended user or helper must then first unfold the wheelchair or at least make it ready for use, whereafter it can be used. This is undesirable, notably in places where time is limited. Moreover, making such a wheelchair ready for use is not easy. Furthermore, such a wheelchair has the disadvantage that it has to be collapsed again after use, mostly by employees, which is economically and ergonomically undesirable. Moreover, these wheelchairs too can only be returned to the central arrangement point one by one.
The object of the invention is to provide an assembly of wheelchairs, which obviates at least the disadvantages mentioned, while maintaining the advantages thereof. To that end, an assembly according to the invention is nestable.
xe2x80x98Nestingxe2x80x99 is herein understood to meant the positioning of wheelchairs relative to each other in such a manner that the wheelchairs in an at least substantially ready-for-use condition are at least partly slid into each other with a proper fit. The area occupied by the joint wheelchairs viewed in a horizontal direction is then considerably smaller in the nested condition than in the unnested condition. In the nested condition, the wheelchairs can all rest on their own wheels or wholly or partly on each other.
Since in the nested condition the wheelchairs take up less floor space than in unnested condition, a great deal of space is gained by at least temporarily storing the wheelchairs, while the wheelchairs in the nested condition moreover give a tidy, neat impression. What is prevented in that the wheelchairs are stored in a substantially or entirely ready-for-use condition is that a user, prior to use, first has to make the wheelchair to be used by him or her ready for use himself, for instance by unfolding it or by assembling parts, or must have this performed by his attendant(s) or other helpers. Thus, a gain of time and serviceability is obtained for the user, while moreover for the benefit of the user his dependency on others is largely or entirely removed. During use, a user, or possibly a helper or attendant, can simply unnest one of the wheelchairs, whereafter the user can directly sit down on the sitting support. After use, the wheelchair is brought back into the nested position and is ready for use by a next or possibly the same user at a later time. A further advantage of an assembly according to the invention is that the risk that the users and passers-by sustain injury from the nested wheelchairs is considerably reduced.
Because the wheelchairs can be nested in the assembly, they can be jointly returned to a central arrangement point, the advantage being that this can be carried out fast and economically by one or two persons.
In an assembly according to the invention, it is particularly advantageous when the floor area occupied by two nested wheelchairs is at most 90%, but preferably less than 75% and in particular less than 60%, of the floor area occupied by these two wheelchairs in an unnested condition.
In an advantageous embodiment, an assembly according to the invention is characterized by the wheelchairs having a slightly wedge-shaped frame.
The wedge shape of the wheelchairs, at least in the nested position, provides the advantage that the wheelchairs can be partly slid into each other by, for instance, wheeling the front part of a wheelchair to be nested into the interior space between the frame parts of the preceding wheelchair, which may already be nested. The mutual angle included by the frame parts in the nested position of the wheelchairs and the thickness of the frame parts determine, in this embodiment, inter alia the extent to which the wheelchairs can be slid into each other and hence the extent of nestability.
In a further elaboration, the assembly according to the invention is characterized by side parts of the frame being moveable relative to each other such that the wedge shape can be enhanced or at least partly removed.
In this embodiment, each of the wheelchairs can be brought into, at any rate increasingly so, the wedge shape by moving the frame parts, so as to enable nesting. In a service position, the wheelchair can then have, for instance, parallel frame parts. As a result, a wheelchair in such an embodiment has a relatively small track in the service position, while yet a high degree of nestability is possible.
In a further advantageous embodiment, a wheelchair according to the invention has a swivel pin extending approximately transversely to a normal direction of travel of the wheelchair and is adjacent a front edge of a sitting portion of a sitting support.
The swiveling sitting support provides the possibility of using a simple and comfortable sitting support, which, in a swiveled position, can provide space for nesting another wheelchair in the wheelchair in question. By positioning the swivel pin of the sitting support near the wheelchair""s forward endxe2x80x94viewed in the direction of travelxe2x80x94and approximately at right angles to the direction of travel of the wheelchair, the sitting support can be swiveled forwards. A next wheelchair can then be nested from the rear, whereby the sitting support of the next wheelchair can extend at least partly into the space in which the sitting support of the preceding wheelchair would extend in a service position, that is, in the position where it is not swung clear. When nesting a third wheelchair in the rear of the aforementioned next wheelchair, the sitting support of this next, now intermediate, wheelchair is likewise swiveled forwards, in the direction of the swung-away sitting support of the preceding wheelchair, thus providing space for the sitting support of, and hence for the nesting of, the rearmost wheelchair arranged last. In this way, a virtually endless row of wheelchairs can be brought into the nested condition, each, apart from the rearmost wheelchair, with the sitting support in substantially the same, forwardly swiveled position.
By positioning the swivel pin near the back of a sitting portion of the sitting support, a constructionally simple and user-friendly wheelchair with a high degree of nestability is obtained.
Biasing the sitting support into the swiveled position in the direction of the nested position provides the advantage that when the user lifts his or her weight off the sitting support, the sitting support will move to the swiveled position and is directly nestable. When first putting the wheelchair to use, the user will place his or her weight on the sitting support, so that the sitting support will be urged to the service position. Moreover, through a suitable extent of bias, the advantage can be achieved that the movement of the user, as he stands up from a seated posture on the sitting support to an upright position, is at least partly supported by the sitting support. This has ergonomic advantages for the user, who, as a consequence, will moreover be less dependent on helpers. As a user sits down, the sitting support can likewise support the movement at least partly, or at least give the user a sense of guidance. Serviceability and a sense of safety for the user will thus be increased.
In an alternative embodiment, an assembly according to the invention has a fixedly arranged sitting position which has an inclination and a construction such that in a nested position the sitting portion of a rear wheelchair extends, at least by a front portion thereof, above a rear portion of the sitting portion of a front wheelchair.
In this embodiment, each wheelchair in the assembly can be provided with at least one fixed sitting support, which is advantageous in terms of construction and pricing. Moreover, no measures need to be taken to prevent parts of the body and the like from being caught between the sitting support and the other parts of the wheelchairs.
In a further advantageous embodiment, an assembly according to the invention has a brake, acting on one of the wheels of the wheelchair, which, when the wheelchair is nested, is centrally operable from one of the wheelchairs in a row of nested wheelchairs, preferably a rearmost one in the row.
In the use of wheelchairs, it is advantageous when they can be braked, for instance through a brake system acting on the wheels. It is then moreover advantageous if the braking means of a wheelchair brake the wheelchair in a neutral, non-energized position and should be actively set out of the braking position by a user or helper. This prevents the wheelchair, possibly with a user seated therein, from riding off unintended, for instance down a slope. However, such a construction of the wheelchairs entails the disadvantage that in the nested condition they would all be in the braked position. For that matter, even when the wheelchairs have to be actively set in the braked position, there would be a chance that in a row of nested wheelchairs at least one wheelchair would in fact be in the braked position. This would disable the joint displacement of the wheelchairs. This disadvantage can be simply obviated by enabling operation of the braking means of all wheelchairs in a row of nested wheelchairs from one of the wheelchairs in the row, while the row of wheelchairs can yet be jointly set in a braked position. xe2x80x98Joint operationxe2x80x99, for that matter, should herein be understood to include a procedure whereby during the nesting of a wheelchair the braking means thereof or of the preceding wheelchair are operated in such a manner that being such that of a row of wheelchairs only one, and preferably the rearmost wheelchair, is braked or can be braked. It is preferred that the braking means of the row of wheelchairs are operably from the rearmost wheelchair in the row because it is well accessible and, moreover, maneuvering the row of wheelchairs is thereby facilitated. The braking means can optionally be securably in the unbraked position. the row of wheelchairs is thereby facilitated. The braking means can optionally be securable in the unbraked position.
In the foregoing, a method according to the invention has been described with reference to wheelchairs that are nestable from a rear side. obviously, however, it is also possible to nest the wheelchairs, for instance, from the front, in which case for instance a possible wedge shape can be of inverted construction, that is, the wheelchair has its largest width at the front.
The invention further relates to a wheelchair evidently suitable for use in an assembly according to the invention.
The invention moreover relates to a method for storing wheelchairs, through nesting wherein once unnested each wheelchair is substantially ready for use.